Just days after Naughty Dog was accused of copying Ellen Page’s features for their incredibly good The Last of Us title they are back in the headlines for stealing someone else’s work.
If you’ve played this game you would have likely seen this Boston subway map.
Well that map isn’t the official Subway map but is rather an unofficial subway map created by cartographer, Cameron Booth. And Mr Booth wasn’t contacted by Naughty Dog and only realised his map was being used in the hit game when a friend contacted him.
Originally he exploded on his personal blog, since removed, which according to Eurogamer stated
“For a software developer – especially a big developer working on a blockbuster title like this – to casually appropriate someone else’s work and incorporate it into their game without any discussion with the owner of that work is completely unacceptable,
Not to mention hugely ironic, as the software industry is always complaining about piracy of their work.”
However it does all seem like an innocent mistake with Naughty Dog and Booth is now stating
“I can say that they do acknowledge their error in using my map and were very apologetic for it”
Booth had requested for public acknowledgement of his works and an appropriate licence fee to be retrospectively paid. So all’s well that ends well really, as a side note. I really didn’t know cartographers still existed. Ignorance is no excuse but haven’t we mapped all the cities already?
Last Updated: June 26, 2013
Macethy
June 26, 2013 at 14:02
Random…
Zoe
June 26, 2013 at 14:05
Joburg could employ an army of cartographers to map out all the water and power lines under the city – maybe then they’d stop hitting them all the time!
Vampyre Squirrel
June 26, 2013 at 14:07
Think that’s wishful Zoe… and besides, they’d still hit them even if they know where they are within a mm.
Kromas
June 26, 2013 at 15:21
I don’t know. Giving them a map where all our cables are could be the road to faster fiber deployment as we will have zero copper cable left in a week.
Vampyre Squirrel
June 26, 2013 at 15:27
Good point there, but it’ll take them years to deploy all that fiber.
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
June 26, 2013 at 14:18
The problem is the map would be correct but the actual places where the water and power lines should be won’t.
Vampyre Squirrel
June 26, 2013 at 14:08
Well Mr Booth is getting an additional income soon if everything goes his way…
Slade Boender
June 26, 2013 at 14:08
Thats… Gold diggerish. Meh
Dean
June 26, 2013 at 14:11
So… he’s gonna get money for a map of a system that’s been mapped? Is his a map of a map, or is it a map that maps the map?
OVG
June 26, 2013 at 14:13
HE COPIED BOSTON the darn pirate.
Lourens Jordaan
June 26, 2013 at 14:17
Naughty dog!!! Bad dog!!! Where’s my newspaper?
Argentil
June 26, 2013 at 14:18
It was obvious from the start that it was an error and they’d thought it was public map of the system. I don’t have a problem with the fact that he was surprised about the inclusion, or wanted some credit for his work – but his tone, cattiness and ‘fury’ really painted him as someone who wanted his 15 minutes of fame.
ElimiNathan
June 26, 2013 at 14:19
Naughty Dog!……
Dr.Apocalypse
June 26, 2013 at 14:26
Header opportunity missed.
ElimiNathan
June 26, 2013 at 14:28
indeed
Gavin Mannion
June 26, 2013 at 15:06
Damnit.. I don’t have the imagination of the other guys for header images like that…I will try harder
Umar Kiiroi Senk?
June 26, 2013 at 14:20
I understand he wants credit for his work but really …. he seems to be digging for a bit of gold there, spelunker
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
June 26, 2013 at 14:22
Well it’s not really gold diggerish. It is his work and so should be paid for it being used.
Argentil
June 26, 2013 at 14:23
Indeed, but instead of contacting ND directly and saying “What’s the deal? Give me credit for this.” He took to making it as messy as possible to garner attention.
Rainman
June 26, 2013 at 14:25
Quickest way to get a response.
Umar Kiiroi Senk?
June 26, 2013 at 14:25
Agreed
Umar Kiiroi Senk?
June 26, 2013 at 14:25
No problem, he didn’t have to explode publicly or insult ND like that … that make it seem like his spelunking.
Argentil
June 26, 2013 at 14:27
“Booth had requested for public acknowledgement of his works and an appropriate licence fee to be retrospectively paid.”
It’s all about the $$$
Umar Kiiroi Senk?
June 26, 2013 at 14:28
It’s all about the dum dum deedeedee dum
Rainman
June 26, 2013 at 14:29
This is America – Everything is about the $$$. In an industry where everything is tied up with patents and copyrights, you would have thought that they would have known better and done their homework.
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
June 26, 2013 at 14:28
Sure, fair enough. But how is his outrage at a developer any differant to gamer’s reaction to things such as bad game endings which we all seem ok with?
Just stirring the pot here. But it does make one think.
CC @argentil:disqus
Argentil
June 26, 2013 at 14:31
Personally, I feel that Bioware are perfectly right to end the game however they want to. All the ‘fans’ who screamed over the ending need to grow up and accept that they told the story the way they intended to. If the ending to a game upset me, it would just dampen my overall appreciation of the game. Why do gamers think they have the ‘right’ to get whatever they want?
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
June 26, 2013 at 14:34
As I said. Stirring the pot. We, as a community cannot get angry at his reaction if our very own community is exactly the same. People emulate what they see. This guy knows the industry moves quicker under the scrutiny of the public than if approached separately.
He used the avenues we as a community have created. That’s all
Argentil
June 26, 2013 at 14:37
I choose not to include myself in that community then. Anyone wanna join my exclusive gamer community? Be nice to one another, that’s all you need to live by.
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
June 26, 2013 at 14:42
Sure! I’ll join!
Argentil
June 26, 2013 at 14:57
There’s a membership perk of a monthly 6-pack of Red Bull.
Self-supplied, of course.
Umar Kiiroi Senk?
June 26, 2013 at 14:49
True, but it seems as though it was an honest mistake on ND’s part. He calls them pirates and goes off on them. I understand we get angry, and publicly voice our views and anger , but ND didn’t make this game thinking they gonna screw this guy, If you look at everyone’s reaction to One, MS certainly did not care about certain people, and as such I felt the outrage was justified. I don’t agree at all with the ME debacle but I can’t use that as a basis to describe the community, we generally Rant and Rave for the benefit of the community and gamers. he sounds like his trying to get his fame and money and then that’s it.
I know it sounds like a double standard but….I don’t feel gamers keep using public forums for self-gain
Andre116
June 26, 2013 at 20:23
Turn on the news and you’ll see that is not just gamers. A whole “we demand” mentality has taken over the world.
RinceTheWhiskyWithIce
June 26, 2013 at 14:23
Have to give him credit. Can you imagine the can of worms it would open if they didn’t?
Umar Kiiroi Senk?
June 26, 2013 at 14:26
He didn’t have to explode and insult the industry and ND as if they are common thieves ……
RinceTheWhiskyWithIce
June 26, 2013 at 14:27
Ah, okay, that I agree with! But this is twitter, isn’t that what’s it’s for?
Umar Kiiroi Senk?
June 26, 2013 at 14:29
LOL is that all twitter is used for … Ranting and insulting publicly … #DealWithIt
RinceTheWhiskyWithIce
June 26, 2013 at 14:29
Yes! deal with it! HAHAHA!
Argentil
June 26, 2013 at 14:29
Actually, twitter is a good, and a bad forum for that reason. It’s full of poncey twits who believe they are entitled to the world.
I do think his first avenue SHOULD have been to contact someone at ND directly, or via twitter directly. He didn’t even @ any of the ND representatives. He clearly wanted to get some publicity for it before he had to acknowledge they had paid him for his work.
RinceTheWhiskyWithIce
June 26, 2013 at 14:30
I think he wanted to embarrass them after they ‘copied’ Ellen Page’s likeness to put the thumb screws on.
Tbone187
June 26, 2013 at 14:59
People that suggest this is gold digging are those that haven’t commissioned work before…It’s well within his right to get paid as well as rant and rave as much as he wants…
Umar Kiiroi Senk?
June 26, 2013 at 15:06
I know.fair point…..but wouldn’t it be nicer to sort it out without making it public……
Tbone187
June 26, 2013 at 15:28
Granted, it’s a bit of a knee jerk reaction on his part but it’s a horrible feeling knowing someone has used your work without at least crediting you so it’s easily forgiven…And besides, making these issues public is the most awesome thing in the free world of the internet… 🙂
Umar Kiiroi Senk?
June 26, 2013 at 15:32
Yeah, I guess it is a horrible feeling….well then, I guess such is the nature of the internet … how else will we be amused
Argentil
June 26, 2013 at 15:11
People who do commissioned work are used to their projects not belonging to them.
Tbone187
June 26, 2013 at 15:32
You can commission work and still have rights as to how its used mate…
Argentil
June 26, 2013 at 15:40
Depends on whom you’re commissioning for.
RinceTheWhiskyWithIce
June 26, 2013 at 14:22
That is hella strange. I used the same map for this awesome boardgame I was making called ‘Beat the balloons to beat the boobs” and he said absolutely nothing!
John Ambitious
June 26, 2013 at 14:32
How’d the sales do on that one?
RinceTheWhiskyWithIce
June 26, 2013 at 14:34
Uh, surprisingly, uh… It’s INDIE? Yeah, that’s it, totally Indie, so Indie that people who are in the Indie business don’t know about it. All I know is my IP was stolen and they made this game loosely based on it. It started this cheerleader who killed zombies, oh and her boyfriends head was carried around on her belt. The industry man. You just can’t trust it…
Mark Treloar
June 26, 2013 at 15:12
Cos the map added so much to the game. I remember staring at it for hours and hours.
Argentil
June 26, 2013 at 15:23
I know, right. Surely as professionals in the industry, ND would know that plagiarising someone’s work (on such a high profile game) would lead to immediate discovery, and bad publicity. It was obviously a mistake, and if they really had planned on plagiarising, they would have made minor changes.
Captain Minion TallTwit
June 26, 2013 at 15:14
They are not called Naughty Dog for nothing. 😛
Ultimo_Cleric N7
June 26, 2013 at 15:23
Well I guess they are now in…….the dog box.
Captain Minion TallTwit
June 26, 2013 at 15:46
If I could give you 100 up votes i would.